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Bhubaneswar, July 31: Youngsters today are keen to avail any opportunity to showcase talent be it in dancing, music or arts. Their interest was amply evident at an dance competition held at Bhanja Kala Mandap Sunday with 500 taking part.
Pragnya Nrutyayan, a city-based organisation promoting dance, organised the event to hunt talent.
“We conducted three competitions including in the categories Odissi dance, modern dance and painting at three different sessions. About 120 solo Odissi dancers presented compositions from 11 am till 4 pm. Another 150 youngsters gave solo presentations of modern dance. Besides the solo performers, 10 Odissi dance groups and 35 modern dance groups also gave performances here,” Gayadhar Sahoo, the event in-charge and member of staff of the academy, said. A painting competition was also held alongside the event.
According to Gayadhar, The top 20 contestants from each category will take part in the final competition to be held August 7 at same venue.
This is the 6th edition of this competition. “In the past five years, we gave space to several young talents and also supported them with scholarships for a year. This year, too, we will select best dancers from each category and offer them scholarship of `3,600 for a year for both solo and group performances,” Swayampragnya Sahoo, the general secretary of the academy, said.
The winners will be presented with prizes at a function to be held at Rabindra Mandap August 26. “Along with the winners, 10 consolation prizes are also to be given to the dancers. The best choreographers of the year will also be honoured at the function. The award for choreography, ‘Nrutya Saranchana Samman’, is aimed at creating support for artistes to stick to dance,” Swayampragnya said.
Mangabinda Nayak, a city-based choreographer, said the award would motivate people like him to give their best to dance. “This is an encouraging initiative by the academy,” he said. Mangabinda used to work at a private firm before he turned to chorography. “I left my job in 2011 and started teaching dance to children. Dance was my passion and I can give my 100 per cent to it. I was inspired by the Hindi movie ‘3 Idiots’ and followed my passion,” the choreographer said.
Besides the prize distribution ceremony, the final event will serve as an avenue to honour Odissi danseuse Padmashree Ranjana Gouhar with the Guru Shree Samman.
Ranjana is a leading Odissi exponent and recipient of the Padma Shree in 2003. She also received Sangeet Natak Akademi Award in 2007.
